The 2003 European Under 23s’ 5000m champion Chris Thompson (Aldershot, Farnham and District AC) eased his way to the top of the current Power of 10 5000m rankings on Wednesday evening, 6 June, while two younger Hampshire athletes achieved qualifying times for this summer’s IAAF World Youth Championships.

Thompson clocked 13:33.81 at the Askina meeting in Kessel, Germany, in his first 5000m since last summer’s European Championships. It earned him seventh place but was satisfying enough, as he explained: “It went as planned. I went through 3km in 8:03.It felt OK. I’m ready to go back to Loughborough and get ready to push on from there next time. It’s good to get one under the belt!”

The run takes Thompson to the top of this year’s Power of 10 rankings, which have been led by Andrew Lemoncello (Fife AC) since he clocked 13:46.00 in Seattle, USA, in February.

Anyika Onuora (Liverpool Harriers) went to third in the Power of 10 women’s 100m rankings in taking second place in 11.48 seconds in a race won by Stephanie Hurst (USA) in 11.36 (wind: +1.0 metres per second).

Susan Scott (City of Glasgow) went to fourth in the Power of 10 1500m rankings by finishing third in 4:11.81. The race was won by Sylwia Ejdys (Poland) in 4:07.48.

Meanwhile Under 17s Louise Webb (Team Southampton) and Louise Small (Aldershot, Farnham and District) were the big winners at the St Mary’s Relay meeting at St Mary’s University Twickenham.

Back at the UK Athletics Endurance Performance Centre where she learnt to clear barriers, Webb not only won the Aqua-Pura 2000m steeplechase but lowered her personal best by more than 3 seconds to 4:47.10 and thus beat the qualifying time of 6:48.00 for the World Youth Championships to be staged in Ostrava, Czech Republic, on 11-15 July.

And Small ran 4 seconds inside the qualifying time of 4:28.00 for the 1500m – and leapt from third to first in the Power of 10 Under 17 Women’s rankings for this summer with her time of 4:25.19..